Contract law and contractions

Recent law school graduates are known to labor over the high-stakes bar exam.

But for Elana Nightingale Dawson, a spring Northwestern Law School grad, the labor took on new meaning last week on the second day of the two-day Illinois bar exam.

A very pregnant Nightingale Dawson, 29, had finished the morning portion of the multiple-choice test Wednesday and had started on the three-hour afternoon part when she went into labor. She had contractions about every 20 to 30 minutes, then about every 15 minutes, she said, and at one point a proctor asked if she was OK.

She continued on, thinking she was in the early stages of labor and had time before her baby boy would be born. "I thought if I put my head in my hands and breathe deeply and do what I learned in (birthing) class, I would get through it," the first-time mother said. "My goal was to get through the exam as fast as I could and leave, barring anything happening that made me think there was something more imminent going on."

Test-takers have to finish the exam for it to be valid. So Nightingale Dawson breathed through the questions, finished the test — perhaps in record time — and asked if she could leave early (the policy calls for all test-takers to stay until the end). It was 4 p.m.

A proctor walked with her from the conveniently located exam to Northwestern's Prentice Women's Hospital, about one block away. Her husband arrived. She delivered Wilson by Caesarean section at 5:58 p.m. — less than two hours after finishing the exam.

"That was certainly not my plan," said Nightingale Dawson, of Downers Grove. "With everything that I had been taught and told, I thought I had time."

Nightingale Dawson's due date had been Saturday, July 30. She originally had planned to have a scheduled C-section Friday because the baby — who weighed in at 6 pounds, 6 ounces — was in the breech position.

The new mother has two clerkships lined up, first with a federal district court judge and then at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Then she plans to work as a litigator at the Kirkland & Ellis law firm in Chicago.

In early October, when Wilson is about 2 1/2 months old, she will learn whether she passed.

"The last hours of the exam were not my strongest moments in terms of focus," she said, "so I am perfectly content with what happens."